Creative Conversations: Hakeem Adewumi with Brenda Cherry

Saturday, October 24 | 2PM 

FotoFest presents artist and photographer Hakeem Adewumi in conversation with Brenda Cherry, a Paris, Texas-based civil rights activist and writer. This conversation brings together two voices working in disparate social and cultural realms, arts and activism, to examine the various ways in which sociopolitical resistance can be enacted and performed both locally and globally.

Hakeem Adewumi, a photographer whose work can be described as a celebration of Black presence, joy, and love, photographed Cherry and other activists in the small Texas town of Paris for a recent Texas Monthly magazine story on the town, its burgeoning activist community, and its reckoning with its past as the site of one of the United States’ most infamous lynchings.

Brenda Cherry’s activism spans over two decades, focusing on social issues related to systemic racial inequality such as police murder and misconduct against BIPOC communities, workplace discrimination, and confederate monument intimidation. As the President and Co-founder of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality, Cherry has organized landmark protests that have influenced public policy and reform in Texas as well as in the context of the U.S. Federal Government.

About the guests
Brenda K Cherry is an American Civil Rights Activist from Paris, Texas. She is the President and co-founder of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality, a non-profit civil rights organization located in Paris, Texas. Founded in 2003, CCFRE co-sponsored events with the U.S. Department of Justice, Lone Star Legal Aid, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Cherry gained national and international attention during her fight for justice in high profile cases including ShaQuanda Cotton, Brandon McClelland, Turner Industries, Bobby Yates, and Joquan Wallace. In addition to her activism on the ground, Cherry has contributed writing and interviews to numerous publications and journals including The Paris Texas Chronicle and the Shawn P. Williams website. Her work has been the subject of writing including Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse (Verso, 2013) and news reportage in Texas Monthly, The New York Times, CBS News, Chicago Tribune, and the Houston Chronicle.